It’s party time in Tehran, with Iranians celebrating the promise of crippling sanctions being lifted - Any deal bad for Netanyahu is good for the US

Iran, big powers clinch landmark nuclear deal

Iran and six major world powers reached a nuclear deal on Tuesday, capping more than a decade of on-off negotiations with an agreement that could potentially transform the Middle East, and which Israel called an "historic surrender".

Under the deal, sanctions imposed by the United States, European Union and United Nations would be lifted in return for Iran agreeing long-term curbs on a nuclear program that the West has suspected was aimed at creating a nuclear bomb.

Reaching a deal is a major policy victory for both U.S. President Barack Obama and Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, a pragmatist elected two years ago on a vow to reduce the diplomatic isolation of a country of 77 million people.

But both men face scepticism from powerful hardliners at home after decades of enmity between nations that referred to each other as "the Great Satan" and a member of the "axis of evil".

"All the hard work has paid off and we sealed a deal. God bless our people," one Iranian diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity ahead of the official announcement.

"Iran will get a jackpot, a cash bonanza of hundreds of billions of dollars, which will enable it to continue to pursue its aggression and terror in the region and in the world," he said. "Iran is going to receive a sure path to nuclear weapons."

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely called the deal an "historic surrender". She said on Twitter that Israel would "act with all means to try and stop the agreement being ratified," a clear threat to try and use its influence to block it in the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress. Congress has 60 days to review the deal, and if it votes to disapprove of it, Obama can veto the rejection. It would require two thirds of lawmakers to override such a veto, which means some of Obama's fellow Democrats would have to rebel against one of the signature achievements of their president in order to kill the deal.

Final talks in Vienna involved nearly three weeks of intense round-the-clock negotiations between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, entirely unprecedented between the two countries.

"SNAPBACK MECHANISM" FOR SANCTIONS

Western diplomats said under the final agreement, Iran had accepted a "snapback" mechanism, under which some sanctions could be reinstated in 65 days if it violated the deal. A U.N. weapons embargo would remain in place for five years and a ban on buying missile technology would remain for eight years.

The foreign ministers of Iran and the six powers will meet at 0830 GMT (4.30 a.m. ET) at the United Nations center in Vienna and a news conference will follow, a spokeswoman for the European Union said on Tuesday.

U.S. allies in the region are worried about an agreement that would benefit Iran.

Tehran does not recognizeIsraeland supports its enemies. Arab states ruled by Sunni Muslims, particularly Saudi Arabia believeIransupports their foes in wars in Syria, Yemen and elsewhere.

But there is also strong reason for the United States to improve its relations with Iran, as the two countries face a common foe in Islamic State, the Sunni Muslim militant group that has seized swathes of Syria and Iraq.

For Iran, the end of sanctions could bring a rapid economic boom by lifting restrictions that have drastically cut its oil exports and hurt its imports. The prospect of a deal has already helped push down global oil prices because of the possibility that Iranian supply could return to the market.

Oil prices tumbled more than a dollar on Tuesday after the deal was reached.

"Even with a historic deal, oil from Iran will take time to return, and will not be before next year, most likely the second half of 2016," Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst at London-based consultancy Energy Aspects, told Reuters. "But given how oversupplied the market is with Saudi output at record highs, the mere prospect of new oil will be bearish for sentiment."

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Leading the chorus of criticism is Isaac Herzog, leader of the opposition Zionist Union, who said: “It’s inconceivable that we should reach this crucial moment with zero influence over the emerging agreement. That is the result of a personal and exclusive failure by Netanyahu, who chose [to prioritise] his political victory over our relationship with the United States and Israel’s security interest.”

Yair Lapid, leader of Yesh Atid and whom Mr Netanyahu sacked as finance minister last year, went further, calling on the prime minister to resign.

"Because of the way that he has managed the situation the door of the White House is closed to him, half of congress isn't willing to listen to him," Mr Lapid said. “We weren’t represented in Vienna, our intelligence relations were damaged and we’re all paying the price for his complete failure in preventing the deal.

"He wanted the credit and so he didn’t keep others updated, he didn’t involve the security cabinet or the government, and this failure is entirely his. He should resign because he knows better than anyone that while he is Prime Minister the United States won’t listen to us and the world won’t take our concerns seriously."

Israel is hoping to receive $4.2-$4.5 billion a year in military aid from the United States for ten years, to counter the threat from Iran and oil-rich Middle East states that have been re-arming rapidly, a senior Israeli source has told Defense News

Under a 10-year deal signed in 2007, Israel receives just over $3 billion a year in American aid, with stipulations that over 70 percent of that aid has to be spent buying US military hardware. An extension of that agreement, running to 2028, was principally agreed on by Barack Obama during a visit to Israel in 2013, but according to Haaretz, talks on its terms have been “preliminary and unofficial.”

Among the purchases to be covered by the new deal are supplies of the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, which the US has refused to export to any other country, as well as up to 75 fifth-generation F-35 joint strike fighters, whenever they overcome their teething troubles. The US also provides technology, parts and rockets for Israel’s missile defense systems such as the Iron Dome and Arrow 3.

Up to 25 percent of Israel’s defense budget is already being funded by Washington under the current agreement, with the figure likely to grow.

You don't know what poverty looks like, Deuce. There are people who live in trash piles in Manila, and sometimes they die when there's a landslide of garbage. America has the richest poor people in the world.

An Israeli Cabinet minister says a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers gives the Islamic Republic a "license to kill."Miri Regev, a former military spokeswoman who serves as Israel’s culture and sports minister, says that the deal was "bad for the free world (and) bad for humanity."

Israel has been at the forefront of efforts to block an accord that would lift sanctions on Iran.

Naftali Bennett, education minister and leader of the far right Bayit Yehudi, like others makes a not so veiled comparison to Munich and appeasement. “The history books have been rewritten again today, and this period will be deemed particularly grave and dangerous.”

“Western citizens who get up for another day at work or school, are not aware of the fact that about half a trillion dollars has been transferred to the hands of a terrorist superpower, the most dangerous country in the world, who has promised the destruction of nations and peoples.”

“Today it may be us, tomorrow it may reach every country in the form of suitcase bombs in London or New York. Israel has done everything possible to warn of danger and in the end it will follow its own interests and will do whatever it takes to defend itself.”

Meanwhile interior minister Silvan Shalom is equally hyperbolic. “You have to realise: even if they comply with every detail of the agreement, which is not at all clear, in ten years they will be completely free. They will able to produce a nuclear bomb, not one, but dozens and hundreds.

“Which of course will be an existential threat to the State of Israel and an existential threat to the entire region, and this will lead to an arms race by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, who will all have one thing in common maybe, that they will have missiles with nuclear warheads aimed at the State of Israel.”

(Lest we forget Israel is estimated to have some 200 nuclear warheads.)

Like a number of other Israeli officials interviewed on and off the record Shalom makes clear that Israel’s solution was to squeeze Iran with sanctions to the edge of regime collapse or beyond.

“If the sanctions had been stiffer, that would have helped of course and they would have ultimately dropped their nuclear

Iran’s president is by a long way the biggest winner to emerge from the nuclear agreement between his country and six world powers. Rouhani highlighted the way in which Iran’s right to develop peaceful nuclear energy has been recognised, as has its status in the region. Ending Iran’s international isolation is a historic achievement that looks likely to win him a second term in 2017. But he faces resistance from suspicious hardliners who fear that even limited rapprochement with the US and the west will promote demands for domestic change that could undermine a regime dominated by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Barack Obama

The US president’s achievement has to be measured against the position of George Bush, who declared in 2002 that Iran was a member of an “axis of evil” that included Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and North Korea. “This deal demonstrates that American diplomacy can bring about real and meaningful change,” he said. “Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.” Obama has vowed to veto opposition in Congress. If all goes well, the agreement will likely be the centrepiece of his foreign policy legacy and vindicate what many considered to be the premature award of a Nobel peace prize.

Bashar al-Assad

The Syrian president quickly hailed the agreement as a “major turning point” in the history of Iran, the region and the world, calling it a “great victory”. Assad has received military and financial support from Iran since the uprising against him erupted in 2011. Tehran’s enhanced regional position in the wake of the deal will strengthen its demands for recognition as a key player in the Middle East, including in any negotiations about the future of Syria. Assad’s Syrian and Arab enemies, contemplating a war that has already left 210,000 dead and made millions of people homeless, are horrified by the nuclear deal – for exactly these reasons. Opposition activists branded the agreement #Munich2Vienna.

Vladimir Putin

The Russian president said the world had “breathed a huge sigh of relief” when the deal was finalised. The lifting of sanctions against Iran could make the easing of western sanctions against Russia over its role in the Ukraine crisis more likely. An eventual end to the arms embargo against Iran would also be in the interest of the country’s $15bn arms industry. Moscow has argued that the embargo should be completely lifted so Iran can help fight Isis.

The self-proclaimed caliph of the Islamic State may now fear a more coherent international effort against his forces in Iraq and in Syria given the new possibilities for cooperation between the US and Iran. Iran has said in the past that the US is not serious about fighting terrorism, and complained that Washington’s close Arab allies – Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Gulf states, as well as Turkey – have promoted jihadi groups. It has already signalled that it may now be prepared to help.

King Salman bin Abdulaziz

Saudi Arabia’s initial silence about the agreement suggests deep anxiety about a rapprochement between the US and Iran, its greatest rival in the region, and a pivot away from the Gulf. The view in Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and nearby capitals is that Washington is appeasing Tehran and ignoring their own security concerns – despite the Gulf states’ far greater expenditure on defence. Salman strongly dislikes Iran’s role in Iraq, Syria, Bahrain and Yemen, where the Saudis are attacking Houthi rebels they say are backed by Tehran. Sunni-Shia sectarianism is an alarming new element of a long-hostile relationship between Arabs and Persians.

Binyamin Netanyahu

Israel’s prime minister had vowed to stop a nuclear agreement between the US and Iran. Not only did he fail to do that but he caused serious damage to Israel’s prized strategic relationship with Washington. Critics at home say he exaggerated the extent of an Iranian threat, some calling for his resignation. Iran has been notoriously hostile to the Jewish state since the 1979 revolution and highlights its support for the Palestinians, including Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Nothing in the Vienna agreement suggests that that will change. Israel also fears Iran may be emboldened. Lifting sanctions gives “Iran a jackpot, a cash bonanza of hundreds of billions of dollars, which will enable it to continue to pursue its aggression and terror in the region and in the world,” Netanyahu warned. The focus on Iran’s nuclear programme has also drawn attention to Israel’s undeclared nuclear arsenal – outside the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

"Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of J Street, a liberal pro-Israel group, said his organization was likely to support the deal “because the primary interest of the United States and Israel was to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and that is the outcome of this deal.”

But the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel group known as Aipac that is likely to campaign against the deal, said it was “deeply concerned” about the contents.

In a statement, the group said it feared the agreement had fallen short of “critical requirements” it had insisted upon for a “good deal,” which included “anytime, anywhere” inspections of Iranian nuclear sites and a duration of multiple decades.

“We are deeply concerned based on initial reports that this proposed agreement may not meet these requirements, and thereby would fail to block Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon and would further entrench and empower the leading state sponsor of terror,” Aipac said."

Trump secured 17% support, according to the Suffolk University/USA Today survey. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush garnered 14%, while the rest of the 2016 field remained in single digits: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, the newest entrant to the race, was at 8%; Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 6%; Florida Sen. Marco Rubio at 5%; Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee at 4%; and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at 3%.

Goodbye, therefore, to the overwhelming influence of the Sunni Muslim nations which gave their sons to the 9/11 crimes against humanity and provided the world with Osama bin Laden, which supported the Taliban and then the Sunni Islamists of Iraq and Syria and – finally – goodbye to those emirs and princes who support Isis. Washington is sick and tired of the decrepit princes of the Gulf, their puritanical lectures, their tiresome wealth (unless it’s paying for US weaponry) and their grotty civil war in Yemen. Shia Iran is now the good guy on the block.

Of course, appearances can be deceptive. The raving loonies among the Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran, the raving loonies in the Israeli cabinet and the raving loonies in the US Congress will try to gum up the works. But here’s a thought. John Kerry – not, to be sure, the brightest of US secretaries of state – has spent more time at the Iran talks in Vienna -- eighteen days -- than any of his predecessors have passed in one place since the Second World War.

AIPAC is an arm of the Israeli right wing. It is solely interested in being of service to Israeli causes. There is nothing American about it. They play on the Christian conservatives who believe that the destruction of Israel will sweep them into heaven. The Christians believe that it is so written. AIPAC plays the Christians and the dispensationalist evangelicals for the useful fools that they are for the cause of Israel.

During the 1980s, AIPAC recognized the opportunity and aligned itself with the American political right-wing, including Christian conservatives.

During the early 1980s the Israeli Ministry of Tourism recruited evangelical religious leaders for free “familiarization" tours.

36 percent of all Americans believe that the Bible is God’s Word and should be taken literally, 59 percent say they believe that events predicted in the Book of Revelation will come to pass. They vote Republican,

WioThose that support Iran and it's Islamic Revolution are out and out traitors to the USA

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.

Sorry to pee on your AIPAC talking points. I have no loyalty to Iran, nor to Germany, Poland or Bolivia. They are independent states. I want to trade with them and have good relations with all of them.

None of them send their agents to the offices of every US lawmaker. None of them has set up apartheid ghettos.

None of them feel entitled to the US treasury.

All that belongs to the Theocratic State of Israel, your dual nationality is to Israel.

Israel has been a disaster for the US, a complete chronic political gout on the US taxpayer and body politic.

After the deal was announced, the prime minister’s appearance was that of a desperate gambler who had lost everything. But now he wants to wreck what’s left of U.S.-Israel relations.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looks defeated. He was ashen-faced on Tuesday next to the Dutch foreign minister at their joint press conference in Jerusalem; his appearance was that of a desperate gambler who had lost everything. The Iranian nuclear agreement, against which he had vigorously and repeatedly warned, had become a fait accompli. The deal over which he had declared political war on the president of the United States, while breaking all the rules of diplomatic relations between friendly countries, had become a reality, for better or worse.

Even before the details of the agreement were known, and without having any idea what was or wasn’t included, senior Likud officials were firing cannon shells through the electronic media. Talking points that had been sent to them in advance contained three main points: 1. The agreement is bad, terrible, and awful; 2. If not for Netanyahu, the situation would have been much worse, much earlier; 3. The opposition is to blame and ought to be ashamed for not being supportive enough/for being critical now/for not standing tensely quiet at the side of the prime minister, meaning the State of Israel.

Obviously. The opposition is to blame for the centrifuges spinning, the uranium being enriched, and the slaughter during the six consecutive years of Netanyahu’s rule.

Netanyahu deserves credit for stubbornly putting the nuclear issue on the global agenda, significantly contributing to the intensified sanctions on Iran. On the other hand, he lost his brakes when he did not hesitate to hook up with the Republican Party in its campaign against U.S. President Barack Obama. Sometimes it’s hard to know where Sheldon Adelson, the biggest Republican donor, ends and Netanyahu begins.

The prime minister himself hastened Tuesday to call on the opposition to “put petty politics aside and unite for the State of Israel’s national interests,” as if the Iranian nukes hadn’t served as an effective political weapon for him during every recent election campaign.

Netanyahu’s spokespeople said he plans to “kill himself” pursuing the last remaining option for scuttling the deal – preventing its ratification by the U.S. House of Representatives – by persuading Democratic congressmen to defect to the Republican camp and vote against their president. The destruction and devastation he avoided inflicting on the nuclear facilities scattered throughout Iran, he now wants to wreak on what’s left of U.S.-Israel relations. Here we again see his compulsive gambler syndrome: After losing his pants, he’s now putting his underwear on the roulette wheel in a move that experts on American politics say hasn’t much of a chance.

Asian refiners are set to buy more crude oil from Iran once they receive word on when sanctions will be lifted, expecting Tehran to price its oil competitively as it tries to rebuild market share in an oversupplied market.

World powers and Iran finally struck a deal on Tuesday after more than 20 months of talks, setting in motion the eventual lifting of sanctions on Iranian oil exports in exchange for curbs on the Islamic nation's nuclear program.

Iran has said its priority destination for selling its crude is Asia, not surprising since China, India, Japan and South Korea are its largest customers. The four have sometimes been the country's only crude customers since toughened sanctions were put in place in early 2012.

Tuesday's nuclear deal sparked a flurry of checks among Asian governments and refiners to clarify when they will be allowed to import more oil from Tehran.

"If the nuclear deal permits, we will increase our purchases," an official from India's oil ministry said. "There are refiners like HMEL (HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd) who want to buy Iranian oil."

B. K. Namdeo, who heads refineries at Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd, said: "We will look at buying Iranian oil if, after the deal, insurance is available for my refineries and Iran continues to offer discounts on crude sales and shipping."

Dubai: The United Arab Emirates is set for a boost in trade and investment following Tuesday’s announcement world powers reached a deal with Iran over its nuclear programme.

Decades of multi-layered sanctions against Iran aimed at curbing its nuclear programme are now set to be lifted, paving the way for the international community to trade with a market that many see as untapped for the past 25 years.

The New Zealand Middle East Business Council, which tries to promotes and help economic contact and trade in the region, says its member companies have been monitoring the situation and “the potential of opening up of trade with Iran”.

Asked what the deal means for New Zealand's relations and trade with Iran the council's chairman Stewart Germann said:

"The NZMEBC is cautiously optimistic about the future prospects for an Iran-New Zealand trade relationship but we are always cognisant of the policy positions of the New Zealand Government in respect of trade sanctions and we will continue to seek their guidance on behalf of our members."

In the aftermath of Iran’s historic nuclear deal with world powers, investors are starting to place bets on which companies look best-set to profit from an end to sanctions.

While big oil and gas producers such as BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Total SA have been exploring ways to take advantage of a breakthrough with the energy-rich state, access to Iran’s 80-million strong population should also be a boon to companies selling consumer goods from food and cigarettes to cars and luxury handbags.

It may take six months before the Iranian market becomes accessible again

According to investors and analysts, potential winners from Tuesday’s accord include Danone, Nestle SA, Peugeot SA and Airbus Group SE, as well as LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE and British American Tobacco Plc.

SEOUL/SEJONG, July 14 (Yonhap) -- A landmark deal on Iran’s nuclear program is expected to help South Korean companies resume business ties with the oil-rich country and to provide them with new opportunities for growth, analysts said Tuesday.

After drawn-out talks, Iran and six other powers reached the agreement that could lead to the lifting of U.S.-led financial and other sanctions imposed on the Middle East country and end geopolitical uncertainties, which is good news for a trading nation like South Korea.

"Iran is a sizable market that has become off limits to South Korean firms due to sanctions imposed by the international community," a finance ministry official said. "If various restrictions are lifted as a result of the agreement, Iran could become a land of opportunity for local companies."

Before sanctions went into effect, Iran was a key trading partner for South Korea. The country provided crude oil for Asia's fourth-largest economy and was a big market for manufactured goods and local builders.

The official, who declined to be identified, said ending financial sanctions will fuel economic cooperation and trade. He predicted that automobiles, petrochemicals, construction and industrial plant sectors can benefit the most from the lifting of trade embargoes against the Islamic Republic.

TEHRAN – Italy took the lead among Iran’s European trading partners in the previous Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20, said Valiollah Afkhami-Rad, the director of the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran.

Italy was the 9th leading importer of Iranian non-oil goods in the previous Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20, 2015, according to the Iran Customs Administration.

For Airbus, Boeing and other manufacturers, that could mean up to $20 billion in deals, shaped in part by the negotiating positions of various camps during the lengthy nuclear talks. And for Iran Air's 38-year-old Boeing 747SP, the last of its kind, it should mean well-deserved retirement.

“Iran is the largest and most important economy in our view that is still closed to institutional investors,” Charles Robertson and Daniel Salter of Renaissance Capital in London wrote in a report this week. The “deal would create some structural underpin for the Turkish story, as Turkish companies exploit the renewed export opportunity.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned speech to Congress on Iran has been widely criticized, in Israel and in the United States. The unimportant criticism focusses on the way the event was concocted: House Speaker John Boehner and Ron Dermer, the Israeli Ambassador to the U.S., planned it in secret for weeks, then sprang it on the State Department and White House (which gave Dermer an opening to blame the Speaker’s office “for not notifying” the Administration). President Obama has declined to meet with Netanyahu; Secretary of State John Kerry has not condescended to meet with Dermer. The speech is scheduled for March 3rd, two weeks before the Israeli election, and will coincide with the yearly mega-conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), where Netanyahu, as in past years, will be received as a champion.

The more important criticism of Boehner’s invitation rests on a fiction: that Netanyahu, the leader of an embattled ally, must depend on bipartisan American support for his country to confront its regional enemies. Netanyahu, in this story, has been reckless in making common cause with Republicans, a move that has inadvertently strengthened Obama’s hand in opposing a new Iran-sanctions bill. Democratic senators who had indicated support for the bill—which its largely Republican sponsors had hoped to pass over Obama’s objections, while negotiations with Iran are still ongoing—are now rallying to the President. Obama now almost certainly has enough votes to prevent an override of his veto, should it come to that. Vice-President Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Minority Leader of the House, are hinting that they and many other Democrats may not even show up for Netanyahu’s speech. The moral of this story, presumably, is that the U.S. and Israel have distinct interests when it comes to Iran, and that both Netanyahu and his Republican hosts have erred in trying to blur them. Above all, they should not have defied a sitting President, who has the constitutional authority to manage foreign policy.

Some of the commentators you’d most expect to support Netanyahu have expressed shock at the planned speech (although they sound a little like Captain Renault discovering gambling at Rick’s Café). Fox News’s Chris Wallace complained, “For Netanyahu to come here and side with Boehner against Obama on Iran seems to me like very dicey politics.” Jeffrey Goldberg, who made the case for the imminence of Iranian nuclear capacity, is now skeptical: “His recent actions suggest he doesn’t quite know what he’s doing.” Other new Netanyahu critics believe that he does. Dan Margalit, most often a Netanyahu cheerleader at the tabloid Israel Hayom, told Israel’s Channel 10 that Netanyahu’s “trip is not being taken for the sake of the interests of the state of Israel—rather for the needs of Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud, for the Likud election campaign.” According to these observers, Netanyahu is injecting partisanship into what should be a bipartisan issue in both Israel and the United States, and is doing harm to Israel by showing the American Presidency disrespect.

At the age of 18, Benjamin Netanyahu returned to Israel, where he spent five distinguished years in the army, serving as a captain in an elite commando unit, the Sayeret Matkal. He took part in a raid on Beirut's airport in 1968 and fought in the 1973 Middle East war.

The Israeli plan is for the U.S. to go to war with Iran (and, preferably, to put a couple of hundred thousand "boots on the ground - in perpetuity.

How about Israel start, call up theirs reservists, take some Iranian territory, and if it looks like a good idea, maybe we'll send in some ground pounders like we did in World War I. But Israel needs to get some skin in the game first.

Magnificent Ronald and the Founding Fathers of al Qaeda

“These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers.” — Ronald Reagan while introducing the Mujahideen leaders to media on the White house lawns (1985). During Reagan’s 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. We repeated the insanity with ISIS against Syria.